Norwich man sentenced to 10 years for shooting that left victim paralyzed

Twenty-five year old Reginald D. Dixon will walk out of prison on his own two feet in 10 years, a judge told him Wednesday at his sentencing in New London Superior court.

The young man Dixon shot in a drive-by shooting in Norwich three years ago will never walk again, said Judge Hillary B. Strackbein.

The victim is paralyzed from the waist down.

"This is what happens in our community when people have guns," Strackbein said. "Whatever the argument, was it worth him being in a wheelchair and you being in jail for the next 10 years?"

Dixon, whose last known address was on Central Avenue in Norwich, has been held in lieu of $1 million bond since February 2013, when he was arrested in Concord, N.C., on unrelated charges and extradited to Connecticut to face charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault. Earlier this year, he accepted an offer from prosecutor David J. Smith to plead guilty to first-degree assault in exchange for the 10-year sentence, five years of which are mandatory.

Dixon chose not to speak at the sentencing. His attorney Michael E. Jewell, called the crime "tragic" and "stupid."

According to Norwich Police, Dixon drove up to the intersection of Seventh Street and Central Avenue on July 2, 2011, and fired three shots at 19-year-old Keshon Elliott, who was standing in front of the Who's Next Barber Shop. The two men had been involved in an argument.

Elliott was struck in the right arm by a bullet that ultimately lodged in his spine, rendering him paralyzed. He refused to cooperate with law enforcement authorities while the case was pending, according to prosecutor David J. Smith.